Verizon Says Buildouts Safe From Tariffs

WASHINGTON, April 22, 2025 – Verizon’s buildout plans shouldn’t be affected by tariffs this year, the company’s CEO said Tuesday.

“Tariffs are a little bit of a moving target,” Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said on the company’s earnings call. “But if we take our capital expenditures, it’s a very small portion of the $18 billion, which is the midpoint of the guide this year, that is exposed to any tariffs.”

President Donald Trump instituted earlier this month sweeping duties on imports from most of the country’s trading partners. Those were then paused for 90 days and set to a blanket 10 percent in the meantime, with the exception of China. Tariffs on Chinese goods were set to about 145 percent, with, as of now, a reduction to 20 percent for some consumer electronics like smartphones.

“Wireless equipment, we’re of course importing. But it’s a smaller portion of the total $18 billion,” Vestberg said, adding that it “will not change any type of investments we’re doing in capex or anything. We cannot foresee that.” 

He said fiber expansions were even less exposed, oweing to domestic suppliers.

Vestberg said the company would, however, pass the smartphone import fee on to consumers.

“In general, if the tariff is going to be as high as they say on handsets, we’re not planning to cover that in our work,” he said. “That’s just not going to be possible.” 

Subscriber numbers

The carrier reported a loss of 289,000 postpaid phone lines, the company’s worst result on record and much worse than Wall Street had expected.

Executives attributed this to subscribers leaving as a result of recent price increases, as well as some government accounts being terminated as the Trump administration fires swathes of federal workers. 

Analysts questioned in investor notes whether the higher losses were entirely Verizon-specific, or indicative of a broader slowdown in the wireless market.

“We are sticking with the view that subscriber growth will be hard to come by, the carriers will have to fight harder to get their fair share from a shrinking pool, and the growth they do deliver will come at a cost,” New Street Research analyst Jonathan Chaplin wrote.

Verizon did launch a new price-lock promotion earlier this month in an effort to bring in more customers, as did Comcast. T-Mobile also announced a new price-lock guarantee Tuesday and AT&T had upped its iPhone trade-in offers in February.

Asked about the effects of reduced immigration, something analysts have flagged as a negative for the wireless industry, Vestberg said Verizon didn’t expect any impact.

Added 45,000 fiber subscribers, 308,000 fixed wireless subscribers

The carrier added 45,000 fiber customers, less than analysts were expecting, for a total of more than 7.5 million.

Executives said Verizon was on track to pass 650,000 new locations with fiber in 2025. The company is currently planning to reach between 35 million and 40 million homes by the end of 2030.

Vestberg said the company would provide more detail into its plans for reaching that goal after the acquisition of Frontier and its roughly 7.8 million passings had been finalized. He hinted the pace of deployment could exceed 1 million locations per year closing.

The company is still expecting the $20 billion deal to close the first quarter of 2026.

Fixed wireless additions were 308,000, down from 375,000 over the period last year and lower than analysts had been expecting. The carrier counts more than 4.8 million customers on the service, and still plans to hit between 8 million and 9 million by 2028.

Vestberg predicted fixed wireless additions would pick up as Verizon deploys more of its C-band spectrum – set to hit between 80 and 90 percent deployment this year – and continues to roll out its new millimeter wave product aimed at apartment buildings.

The company has launched the service in more than 50 markets, Vestberg said, but he didn’t offer more details.